


thunder

by oceandawn



Series: love like the weather [1]
Category: EastEnders (TV)
Genre: Domestic Bliss, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:00:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24569674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oceandawn/pseuds/oceandawn
Summary: ben always misses him. callum always misses him, too. their hearts are loud with it — like thunder and rain.
Relationships: Callum "Halfway" Highway/Ben Mitchell
Series: love like the weather [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1776181
Comments: 18
Kudos: 99





	thunder

**Author's Note:**

> yeah i dont know what this is. i was sad at 3am and this happened. i miss their soft moments a lot, also the rain lately has really put me into a writing mood where i dont wanna write anything but these two being soft and listening to it.
> 
> so yeah, enjoy?

Rain pours outside. Heavy, thrashing against the window, a promise of thunder looming overhead. If anything, the sound is soothing, a sense of comfort that Ben's not outside, and instead in the warmth, under sheets and held in strong arms.

He moves his head a little, feels his stubble scratch against the skin of Callum's stomach, tickling him ever so slightly. Ben has part of Callum's shirt pushed up, searching for warmth as the air in the room is quite cold, lingering on the surface of his skin not covered by fabric or in contact with Callum.

Callum breathes easy above him, head on Ben's pillow, a tingle up his spine from the tickle fading out along his arms. He feels it once more when Ben's thumb brushes against the side of his ribs, slow and steady, as if Ben has every available second in the world to lay here and map out every part of Callum.

It's already late, Callum only came home an hour ago, head heavy with the pushes and pulls of his work shift. Being a paramedic is rewarding, but the hours are starting to catch up with him, and he all but fell into Ben's embrace when he met him by the door.

He placed his face between the gap between Ben's jaw and his shoulder, breathing him in, arms hugged tightly around his waist, _pulling_ him in. One single thought played in his head like a melody, note after note, an exhale that relieved his chest of all the ills of the day.

_I'm home._

And Ben moved his fingers through his hair, kissed along his cheek and temple, sighed through his nose when Callum squeezed him for a second or two and _god —_ Ben could've just stayed in his arms, swaying back and forth, feeling entirely held up by the strength and love of Callum alone.

It must have been minutes, maybe a good twenty of them before Callum broke away, hands lingering on his waist before moving in to kiss Ben's forehead, lips ghosting over his skin afterwards. Ben simply had his eyes closed, face tipped up as if, once again, he could stand there forever.

"It's cold in here," Callum had said, hands brushing through Ben's hair at the back, another kiss placed against his forehead as Ben smoothed his arms around Callum once more.

"Mmm," was his first reply, the comfort of fingertips pressing, massaging his head rendering him speechless for a few seconds. "Think the boiler broke."

Callum clicked his tongue, holding him again before searching for his hand to hold. They speak so quietly, whispered between them, hushed kisses against lips that turn slow, lingering until one of them wants more. They both do.

It's when Ben helped unzip his jacket, Callum watching with his hands warm and solid against Ben's neck, that they felt the _click,_ the flame to fuel. But it doesn't burn, only warms, _keeps_ them warm for as long as they touch. 

They're a cosmic agreement — one revolves around the other, one warm, one cold, but together they burn, become a wonder amongst every other star.

He'd placed his jacket on the sofa as Ben led him by entwined hands only. The TV's off, and Callum's hoodie is once again resting on the shoulders of Ben, colour fading a bit after two years of constant washes.

Ben had pulled it off, thrown it in the bedroom before turning around to kiss Callum, his back thumping to the wall near the stairs.

"Hey," Callum had said, a smile clearly heard in the tone of his voice. "You gonna' let me shower first?"

He felt Ben's smile against his lips, and there's no power that would stop him from smiling in return, because every part of him switches off except the furnace in his chest that strictly yearns and needs the love of the man on his tiptoes to kiss him right there and then.

"Don't take too long," Ben asked, kissing the corner of his mouth before patting Callum's chest. "I'll wait. I'm patient."

Callum scoffed. _Liar._

And Ben was about to walk away, warm Callum's side of the bed when he was pulled back in. Callum held him in his arms, fingertips moving in circles at the small arch in his back, and just — _admired._

Callum always looks stricken, as if he fell from whatever heaven just to see Ben, that he pulls the sun up every day to see the orange dawn paint the freckles over his nose. 

Ben always feels like he's falling, but Callum has him, _always,_ bites his bottom lip to start the kiss, fingertips pressing into his skin to pull him towards the bathroom. The moon frames Callum, and Callum shadows Ben. An eclipse.

And they showered, the steam swirling up the panels of the glass, hands over skin, Ben kissing him as if they have all the time in the world. And right now, they do, Callum with his arms around his neck, thumb pressed behind his ear, moving down to his neck where a fingernail tickles the surface of his skin.

Ben would have this for years, centuries if he wasn't mortal. Being with Callum can't be explained, not able to give meaning to the way his toes curl when Callum kisses him deep, when his hands move over his skin like the way an ocean wave reaches up and down the beach after crashing. That crashing part was his day, wild and unforgiving as he holds himself to be, his image — and with Callum, he soothes out, becomes serene, content.

They stayed in there until their skin started to wrinkle, and Callum took great care in using a towel to wipe softly at Ben's face, following the line down his jaw, brushing it below his lip and making it move with it. Callum looked like an artist watching his own painting come to fruition.

And he'd smiled, cupping Ben's face either side, both hands covered in the towel.

 _"I love you,"_ whispered Callum, bringing him forward as Ben nested his hands on Callum's stomach, gentle presses of his fingertips as they kissed again, noses bumping, stubble scratching, a dance they know all too well by now.

"C'mon," Ben said afterwards, pulling away with dazed eyes, lips pouted a little in a vision that does not look like he wants to stop kissing him at all. "We should get an early night."

Callum agreed with a small peck to his lips, then another, _and another_ until Ben broke away laughing, patting his chest lightly, not wanting to push him away.

"What's gotten' into you?" He'd said, forefinger moving along his collarbone. "Not that I'm complaining."

And Callum, _Callum —_ he did the usual thing he does. Bone crushing, world bending, soul weaving — looked at Ben like he put every single star in the sky, knitted every broken fragment of his heart together.

He leaned forward, forehead against Ben's, and Ben couldn't help but look at his lips, read them as Callum pulled him closer by the hip.

"Missed you," He admitted, whispered it so easily and those words latched on to Ben, made his skin raise, his heart beating so frantically he was scared it would've beaten out of his chest.

Callum's said it so many times, repeated it in numerous ways, from joyful to times spoken in tears. But each time, _each_ time is more warming, more promises of days he gets to spend with him, gets to _love him._

Ben let his vision fall again, but this time, he followed Callum's hand, watched it place itself over the _thumpthumpthump_ of his heart and felt the shiver of his own exhale.

"Missed this," he'd said, thumb moving with each heartbeat. And Ben felt it, a chemical reaction, the sting in the backs of his eyes at what that meant.

_You. This._

Callum missed his heart, _him,_ the love he has for Callum he struggles to voice, to action. But Callum knows it's there, feels it make song under the skin of Ben's chest.

And he bends, kisses over the surface of his heart, and Ben has to bite his lip, sniffs to stop himself from crying. His fingertips pressed into the skin of Callum's back, held on as Callum dropped even more, hands to the backs of his thighs and lifting him into his arms.

It stole Ben's breath for a moment, overwhelmed, but Ben loves it, adores how Callum carried him in an embrace towards their bed.

And now they're here, Ben with his head on his chest, rain punching against the window they've purposely left the curtain open for. He watches each one, but his eyes fold closed when Callum reaches his hand down, soothes a thumb down his nose, drawing over his skin with a fingertip as if the two years they've been together aren't enough for Callum to mesmorize every part of him. 

It's not just that. He knows how much Ben needs it, how much he chases the love of people that won't give it to him. But this, Callum following every line of his body, it makes Ben feel real, weighted, remembered. Even when Callum isn't here, he'll know Ben, can recall him in times of darkness in that job, knows he's coming home to the love he feels echoing on his skin every time he feels over Ben's heart.

"I miss you too," Ben says, chin now sitting on his stomach as he looks up to Callum, hair disheveled from half an hour earlier. His chest still moves with a bit of adrenaline, and his eyes still burn blue as he lifts his head to find Ben.

He smiles, and Ben smiles back, not being able to resist shifting up his body so he can kiss his lips once more.

And Callum frames his fingertips to the hinge of his jaw, searches one eye then the other, breathes in. He's content. Peaceful.

"How about we go away?"

Ben frowns.

"Like a holiday?"

Callum nods, moving his fingers to tickle down his neck. "Just you and me."

"It's always you and me," replies Ben, pressing his lips to the dips in Callum's collarbone. "Always."

"Yeah?" There's resistance in his throat.

Ben brings his head back up, takes the few seconds time gives them as he watches the small shine in Callum's eyes. He leans forward, kisses at the corner of one eye.

And Ben nuzzles his nose to his cheek, Callum turning his head after a moment so their lips connect. Once. Twice.

"I'd like that," Ben finally replies, and Callum eskimo kisses him, and Ben Mitchell will _not_ mention how much that made his heart skip. _Ever._

"Mm," Callum hums, pushes Ben's fringe back. "Somewhere quiet, expensive."

"And _who_ is paying for that?"

"Both of us," laughs Callum. Ben joins in.

"Double bed?"

"Nice to see you have your priorities straight," Callum has this beaming smile, shadows of the rain falling over both of their bodies in navy sheets.

"They're never straight," Ben jokes, and he squirms when Callum pinches his side, turning to tickling when Ben keeps laughing.

That sound is gold, so rare, and Callum always treasures each time he hears it. Golden tones of happiness, of content from a man that grew up without it.

"We're going to have a break, for the beach, the food — not so you can brag about—"

Ben kisses him to shush him, "I never said that. I was only asking because you're tall as anything and I would not be able to be next to you in a single."

Callum takes a moment, clicks his tongue.

"That so?"

"Promise," Ben pouts, and Callum pinches his side again.

But Callum loses out this time, because Ben kisses him, smiles into it, and Callum _melts._

"I love you," whispers Ben, and Callum rolls them over after a brief pause, entwines their fingers together, holds Ben's hands and places them against the pillow either side of his head.

Callum watches for a moment when he pulls back, lets go of one hand to brush his thumb against Ben's bottom lip, then down to his heart again. He doesn't have to ask him to promise that, not when his heart thunders beneath, louder against Callum's skin compared to the rain outside.

He doesn't say it back, doesn't need to when his lips press the words into Ben's skin every single time, warm, like stars are being born with every touch, brightening and building their own universe — together. Always.

Ben tips his head back, closes his eyes as Callum holds him, nuzzles into the skin of his neck before placing more kisses. He turns his head, locks eyes before kissing Callum, and it's a rush how quickly he feels those words.

Like a song, like rain against the window, constant and evermore.

_I love you. I love you. I love you._

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: oceandawn  
> tumblr: oceandawning


End file.
